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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 23, 1910)
TIIE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE: JANUARY 23, 1910. Margaret O'Brien's Quarter of a Century in the Omaha Public Library I) 1 K I" N OMAHA schoolmaster stood 1 with his imU nephew before JT I the rending room door of the J'unnc library a few days afro and, nodding toward a head of Know Whit hair bowed nvmr K. librarian's desk, said to the child: 'That woman used to give ma books when I wti no larer than you are." And there are hundred, yen, thousande of Onwha mm and women who might aay the nam thlnir to their children today of Miss Msrgaret tTBrleii, who wUI complete her twenty, fifth year of service In the Omaha Public library next Wednesday. P0 closely han she ben identified with the organization through the years of I la growth and de velopment that to Its patrons, old and young, her genial fare crowned with a wealth of anowy white hulr Is more fs rnlllnr than any other nrd 1m sssoelatoil with the library ax a part of the Insti tution Itself. "The Library Lidv." Hy this anpcli tfon alio la Vnown Ut thousands who have not known llr l,y name and It was esti mated by a member of Omaha'a Pioneer association recently that aha ha bowing aoijmHrilanre- at leart. with mora people than any other ona person tn town. Put In spite of her twenty-five years of service and her white hair. Miss O'Brien la far from hiring a candidate for tha pensioner's class. She, la only beginning te enter middle lire. Hsr abundant hair ha been whit since chlMhootl and, like hr keen gray eyes. Is fmi)y feature. And there la that In her alert face and the suggestion of a smile lurking at the corner of her month that bespeak a na ture and a heart that will never grow old even when those lines that mark every aerlous fare become deepened with age. It was when the library was housed In the old Williams' block at Fifteenth and Dodge streets that Miss O'Brien entered the employ of the city, and her service has been uninterrupted since. She had been teaching for a short time In Jefferson pre cinct of this county and upon the advice of Judge Jamea W. Savage, a family friend and at that time a member of the library board, she made application for a position as an assistant librarian. At that time the Institution boasted two employes, of whom MTsa Mary V. Allen, as librarian, was tha superior. "It was early Monday morning, January M. 1885," said Miss O'Brien, "that I got a card from Misa Allen telling ma to come New York EW YORK. Jan. 21 There la a N door in a Fourth avenue build ing which has all the hall marks of shipping department doora In general battered aide posts, polished Iron chutes, boxes on the sidewalk marked with names that aeem to have been taken haphazard from a gazetteer. Husky truckmen are continually going In and out and through the dusty wlndowa the heads may be seen of clerks chocking off lists. It is one of a thousand doors which would to a casual passerby seem devoted to the same purpose. But there is a special name attached to this particular door. This la the Door of a Million Bibles. Out of this door each year a million Bibles pas to be distributed through the world. The rumor that a conditional gift of G00, 000 from Mrs. Russell Sage awalta the ac tion of the Bible society In raising a sim ilar amount Is affirmed by one of the of ficials, but that any rigid time limit baa boen placed upon it he denies. ' "Mrs. Sage has been very considerate," he says, "and appreciating the difficulty at tendant upon the task haa extended the boundary of the' period to a generous fu ture." Already large sums have been received from the various agencies about the coun try to be added to the fund whloh la being raised. It tukea approximate y $600,000 to pay the expenses of the society each year, and the 11,000,000 that the officials expect to receive through Mrs. Sage's gift will be considered In the light of a nestegg, some thing to depend on in the case of financial depressions and a consequent slacking up of contributions. t Only One Book. v It was Sir Walter Scott who In his last Illness, after asking a friend to read aloud to him and hearing the Interrogation as to the book desired, aald, "There Is only one." As to .thia "only one" there Is, according to the statistics of the American Bible so ciety, no evidence that the interest of the human family has lapsed Into Indifference. A record of approximately 90,000,000 volumes In eighty years speaks eloquently to the contrary. "The society was flrat housed in a small building on Nassau street, in a room about the size of one of the secretaries' sanc tums of today, with its walls lined with Gossip About Itooaevelt'a fttnnts In Africa. K WOULD breakfast at dawn W and leave the farm about the time that it grew light enough to se," writes Theodore Roose vt It In fcribner's. "Ordinarily our course was eastward, toward the Athl, a few miles distant. These mornlnts rides were very beautiful. In our front was the mountain mans of Donvo Sabuk. and the sun rose behind it, flbod lvg the heavens with gold and crimson. The morning air blew fresh In our faces, and the unahoil feet of our horses made no sound as they trod the dew drenched grass. On every hide game Mood to watch us. In ids of h:irtebcests and zebras, and now and then a herd of wild beasta or a few Irsgglng old wildebfest bulls. Some, tmns the zebras and kongonl were ver7 shy, and took fright when we were yet a lira) way off; at other times they would vtund motionless and permit us to come within fair gunshot, and after we had parsed we could see them regarding us without their having moved. The wllde becsta were warier; us:ially when we were still a quarter of a mile or so distant the 1 ?rd, which had been standing with heads up, their short, shaggy necks and heavy withers giving the animals an unmistakable look, would take fright, and, with heavy fur vets, and occasional running In semi circles, would make off, heada held down nd long tails lashing the air. "In the open wooda which marked the bolder between the barren plains and tin fortsted valley of the Athl. Kerrnlt and 1 srot water-buck and linpalla. The water buck Is a stately antelope with long, coarse gray hair and fine carriage of the head and neck; the male alone carries noma. We found them usually tn parties of ten or a dozen, both of bulls and cows; but urnetiraea a party of cow a would go alone. o Wiree or Wr. In fiua it mucl or four bulla might be found to- inie.ui us name, we aid not much given to going In the water. although It would cross the river fearlessly whenever it desired; It was. however, al I down to the library and begin work at once, and I wfca pretty happy when I pre sented myself. My teacher's certificate served as a substitute for an examination, so It was possible for me to begin immedi ately. It was a modest little library then, too. compared with our present splendid In stltutlcn. "It occupied a part of the seoond floor of the Williams block, but when the third story was added we moved upstairs, and we felt we had expanded greatly. The Provides helves. An officer of that early lme said that he hoped the society would prosper to the extent of having all the available space soma time filled with Bibles. In 1863 the society moved to Its present quarters arter various changes of residence, the corner stone being laid with due ceremonies on June 84, 1864," says Dr. Henry Dwlght, who acted as guide to the reporter and Is at present one of the secretaries of the so ciety. 1 Following him one sees' In the printing rooms men and women working together, a majority of whom have grown gray in the service. Some of the secretaries and clerks have served in the mission field, and Dr. Dwlght himself haa come to his quiet revolving chair after . strenuous days and nights In Turkey. Where the Board Meets. One of the most interesting places visited is the managers' room, where board and special meetings are held. It Is a fine old apartment with high wainscoted walla and paneled celling. Stained glass windows af ford a mellow light and in it are portraits of men prominent in the history of the so ciety. At one end of the room is a fac simile of a Chinese houseboat used to con vey a corps of missionaries guarding some twenty tons of Bibles sent to parts of China la the great Tangtse Klang river. The figures of the latter half of the year 1909 are not yet compiled, but the record shows that during the flrat six months there were old tn China alone some 408,000 Bibles, a total never reached before. In the salesroom of the -society are cases filled with duplicate copies of original books and manuscripts. The fact that the building hi not fireproof Is the reason why the interesting collection owned by the so ciety la at present housed at tht Lenox library. This collection contains editions of the Bible In more than ISO languages and dialects. Of English versions and revisions there are approximately 1,000 volumes, ex clusive of the manuscripts. , . Some Havre Copies. Here you will see one of the few "Vinegar Bibles," Oxford, 171. In which a printer's mistake haa been Immortalised, as in the "Brteches Bible." There is a facsimile of the Bible printed on white satin whloh was presented to the empress dowager of China in 1894 by 10,000 Christian women. There is a copy of the Bible done into the Mon- Noted People ways found not very far from water. Tt liked the woods and did not go many miles from the streams, yet we frequently saw It on the open plains a mile or two from trees, feeding In the vicinity of the aebr sad the hartebeest This was, however,' usually quite early In the morning or quite late lu the afternoon." Gladstone and Tobaecn. One of the few accomplishments which Gladstone never acquired was the art of smoking, says the Westminster Gasette. His few attempts in this direction are re ported to hnve been dismal failures. Only once waa he known to try a cigarette, the occasion bttng one evening when King Ed ward (thon Prince of M ales) waa his guest at Downing: street. After dinner the prince desired to smoke and Gladstone with tine courtesy sought to place his guest at ease by at least lighting a cigarette. In later years the Grand Old Man one day accused his, secretary of smelling of the weed. "No wonder," was the reply, "I've been over half an hour with Sir William Harcourt." "What! Dora Harcourt smoker' exclaimed Gladstone. "You must tell him to be cxro ful always to change his clothes before be comes to me." Jim's Coat aDana Mere. Richard La Oalllenne, the noted poet, was entertaining a group of magaslne ed itors at luncheon ia New York. To a compliment upon his fame Mr. L Gallleiine aald lightly: "But what la poetical fame In this age of prose? Only yesterday a schoolboy came and asked me for my autograph. I a anted willingly. And today at breakfast time the boy again presented himself. " 'Will you give me your autograph, slrr be said. " 'But,' said I, 1 gave you my autograph yeaterday!' " 1 swopped that and a dollar,' he an swered, for the autograph of Jim Jef frie.' " board at that time Included Judge Jamei W. Savage, president; William Wallace, vice president; Louis 8. Keed, secretary; Ok V. Oallagher, R. L. Perrlne, James M. Ross, John T. Bell, II. P. Lewis and Miss Elisabeth Poppleton, now Mrs. Shannon. Of these members. Mr. Reed alone has continued on the board, and I was sin cerely sorry when ill health compelled hU resignation a short time ago. For a time we remained In the Williams block, and then came a notable change. We moved Bibles in golian dialect by 8chrescnerowsky, a orlp ple, who ateo did one Into Calmuck. There Is a copy of the "Matarin Bible," the first book printed. from movable metal types In two volumes, which appeared about the year 1466 and the first recognized copy of which was discovered tn the library of Cardinal Mazarin hence the title. It ia also called the "Gutenberg Bible," from the name of the printer, and again termed the forty-two line Bible, from the number of lines in each column of Its pages. Copies of the several editions of the Gutenberg Bible have been sold for sums which would procure nearly 100,000 Bibles now printed by the American society. There are also copies of the Douay version of the Bible used by Roman Catholics, of the translations from the Latin Vulgate made by the English college at Rhelms, of the English version of the Scriptures now in common use and of the revised edition, the work of English and American scholars, which appeared In 1886. According to the terms of tha agreement then entered into no other revision was to be published until after fourteen years, so it was not until the summer of 1901 that the American standard edition of the revised edition was given out. The society exhibits In special cabinets ome of the queer objects given among the many native tribes In exchange for Biblea. These Include personal adornments, weap ons of the hunt and war, carvings and paintings, shells, embroideries. I fr ' In the Sales Iloom. In the salesroom are to be seen single books from the Bible printed In clear type and bound In cloth, whloh retail for t cents apiece, those In foreign tongues at I cents. The New Testament costs 8 cents. The complete Bible may be had for 17 cents, the foreign versions costing 25 cents. ' The most expensive Bibles, printed for the hol iday trade, with soft covers of scarlet leather, cost only 11.80, the object of the society being to furnish these volumes as cheaply as possible and eliminating editions de luxe and Bibles In expensive bindings, except In rare instances where a direct call Is made for them. The low prices, many of them much below the actual cost of production, are Interesting In connection with the statistics furnished by Dr. Dwlght In regard to the expense In curred In earlier times. "Before the art of printing, the Bible was reproduced exclusively by briefmen, or copyists, whe wrote it out with the pen, and it was then the most expensive book Bit of "'.I-.,- , ....! -.'A 'U.'e'.' a : ' 'v.p, itf& r?r, : r.,fe-r,.. - . , ; VIEW OF HE accompanying picture shows the mala street in Brownvllle, as It appeared In 1869. Brown ville ia one of the oldest towns In the state, and at on? time was, perhaps, the moat lmpurt and. In the pioneer days It waa the seat of the land office, and played a great part lu the river t raffia, August , ISA. Rlahard Brown, from Holt county, Missouri, crossed the river and landed at a little cave among the bluffs oa the Nebraska territory aide. He waa Impressed with the beauty of tha spot. As to whether he had dreams of founding a great city or simply a village is un known, but the fact remains that be drove sles.ee, and laid aut a town Brown vtlle-. whloh grew and prospered, until an aggre gation of circumataiicee oaileled her de X I MARGARET O'BRIEN. Into the Falconer block at Fifteenth and Douglas, the portion now occupied by the Ktlpatrlck dry goods house. We had the two upper floors,' the lower being lined as a reading room and the top floor for. the circulating library. At that time the col lection Included 13,129 books and magazines and w-as the most completeof any In this section of the west. We were very proud of It. About this time Miss Jessie Allen, Vast Numbers for in the world.", he said. "In the thirteenth century a copy of the Bible with a few explanatory notes cost $150. The wages of a laborer amounted then to 18 cents a week, and It would take a workman somo fifteen years to earn enough to purchase a volume. "Even after the Invention of printing, the Bible told at fabulous sums. In as late a period as that immediately following the American revolution the dearth of books was so great that the possession of a Bi ble ranked with that of the other treasures of a household. The cheapest volume was purchased for not less than U " Work for Missionaries. Altogether, through the efforts of the so ciety, translations of the Bible have been made into aome 450 languages and dialects. These translations are generally made by .missionaries, who in the countries where there is no written tongue find themselves confronted by a work that oftentimes takes anywhere from two to five years and Is attended by very great difficulties. As soon as a missionary has formulated a written language from the spoken sounds and has taught some of the natives to read and write, he wants to translate the Bible and requests the Bible society to print the translation and send him the books for dis tribution. At the present time the Bible society Is printing the Bible In three of the lan guages of Africa' which have never been used for writing. It is also printing Bibles In five of the languages of the-Philippines and slowly completing the printed list of thirty languages used in the various islands of the South Pacific. great many of the books intended for distribution in the far east are printed in places other than New York.- For exam ple, there is a fine printing establishment at Yokohama, under the auspices of the Bible society, which employs Japanese workmen under contract. From this place' distribution Is made to the Philippines and to Korea. Tha society also prints In Shanghai and Chen Tu and at Bangkok In Slam, and at Beirut In Syria similar work Is done, some of It on presses be-, longing to the Presbyterian Missionary so ciety, with whom the American Bible so ciety co-operates. All the books for South Africa are prntted here, and those for the Gilbert islands, the Kusale and Ponape islands, too, as well as many other far away points. The packing of Biblea for these points re 4 Early Nebraska History t,..,i;.;.. , ' ? '' v v ,'- -J ; ' , ; si't : - 'j' '-"j. '') ' "'-J'"" J" " ' "' .W'1' ' : 3f ,!" MAIN STREET N BROWN VI LLE IN cline, which began in the latter 70's or early W. Brownvllle and Bellevue toss coins for the ag hopor. Brownvllle was long the county eat of Nemaha county. The Burlington railroad built from Brownvllle to Nemaha City, and from thence west, and, instead of striking the little town of Sheridan to (he center of the county, ran one mile south of It, established a station called Calvert, bought the surrounding land, boomed the town. Intending to kill Bheri dan, capture the county seat from Brown vllle and make Calvert a flourishing town, all of which would have come to pass had not tha Missouri Pacific decided to build a line from Kansas City to Omaha, making Sheridan a station. Sheridan boomed, and so did Calvert Each town had a "court house" square, and kept agttatlng the Question of re-loca then assistant to her sister, accepted a po sition In Washington, D. C. and I was ap pointed to her place, and later, upon mo tion of John Bell, was formally appointed assistant librarian. This was May J, 1 880. "The next Important epoch In tha history of the library was It. removal to the third floor of the Pn.Ttnn block In January. 18R8. Shortly before that Miss Mary Allen had resigned her position as librarian and her sister, Miss JesBie, was recalled from Washington to succeed her. Our new quires great precautions, which means usually that they arc placed In tin boxes which are made airtight and roldered and then put In wooden boxes, so (hat If they should be dropped overboard on their way from the ship's side or In voyaging up rivers and through canals the books will not suffer thereby. Colporteurs as Lingual Experts. The United States Is divided into sec tions, and from the agencies established In each colporteurs cover certain allotted territory. ' "We are apt," continues Mr. Dwlght, "to think that the missionaries of South Africa, of the Philippines, among the Basques and in Iceland, as may be, must necessarily meet with strange peoples and strange ad ventures, but we do not have to go be yond the confines of our own country to parallel them. "Many of the colporteurs, particularly those In the northwest, speak at least twenty different languages and continually requests are coining from them and from outside people begging that the Bible may be translated into some dialect or lan guage spoken In far-off points, the very names of which are unknown to the ma jority of New Yorkers. In the agency which distributes the Scriptures from the city of San Francisco lr California, Ne vada. Oregon and Washington are Spanish speaking Mexicans, Portuguese, one-half of all the Chinese in the United States, Japa nese. Koreans, Hindus, Malays, Hawallans and Filipinos. The agenoy established in the northwest during the year ending March 81, 1909, dis tributed Scriptures In thirty-five different languages, Inoludlng, in addition to Frenoh, Gerfnan, Scandinavian and Finnish, such tongues as the Lettish, Slovak, Lithuanian, Croatian, Slovenian and Arabic One of ,the Bible society colporteurs was Bent to Indianapolis to Alstrlbute books among the Hunyaks. The name waa unknown to him. When he went among them he found that the people so designated were a medley of Servians, Croattans, Bulgarians, Macedon ians, Turks, Roumanians, Greeks, Alban ians, Germans and Hungarians. "In Haughvllle, a suburb of Indianapolis, he found Slovenians, Polanders, Slovaks and Lithuanians. These foreigners live, to gether In groups, in. one instance, fifty three men were living in five small rooms. The colporteurs employed by the American Bible society during the last year numbered .... '-..-. ; ,. : ' -'.' .---'.f-,-j-''-' -': '"''v-' - il'" '-'.'."." :'Vt"--...- r n I it. Ilt. tion, but it was evident that locating It In either Calvert or Sheridan, waa impos sible. Consequently the leader of the two towua held a meeting and decided to lay out a new town which ahould include the two, and petition to locate the court house beteewn them. A. H. Gllmore, now deceased, had been reading the "Gold smith's Deserted Village," and suggested the name "Auburn," which is now Ne maha's county seat. The town and Brown vllle. the "deserted village," was Incor porated In 1883, and an election held in Feb ruary of the same year for the purpose of voting on movlsg the county seat from Brownvllle. . Poor old Brownvllle was the loser and Its decline was rapid. Within ten year, the finest residences In Brown vllle could be rented for almost nothing, and In some Instances the owners were so glad for tenants that rent was free. quarters were a great Improvement over the old. The reading room was separated from the circulating department by a glass partition and wa had more room than ever. Everything Indicated that the popularity of the Institution had grown apace with the Collection, and we began to dream of a home of our own, a building that should be equipped for our needs. 1 "In April of 1887 the board realising the necessity of doing something to Improve the system, hired Charles Evans, formerly World Distribution approximately 682. Of these 1G3 were In the home agencies and the remainder in the foreign agencies and as missionary corre spondents. 1 nevlsione Reqnlre Attention. "The revisions of the various translations and editions of the Bible already printed is also an important branch of the work," says Dr. Dwlght. "For example, we havo been at wok since last spring In getting a' Spanish revision any expect It will take six year to complete the work. For this purpose we brought here, three American missionaries from Mexico, three men who have lived In South America for thirty years and know the literary language per fectly, and to assist these three native scholars. , 1 "They are expected to keep close watch on each other's work and prevent either provincialisms or the stiff old Castlllan tongue from predominating. When the re vision of the existing Bible Is completed a thousand copies will be sent through the Spanish speaking countries to get the criti cisms of the people. This is called the ex perimental publication, and when the books return to us they will come with many new Ideas, valuable as well as useless sugges tions and criticisms of the translators' and revisers' work. "In China there has been working for twelve years a committee composed of Americans and British, who are revising two Chinese dialects, and these men will stay there and dig for several years longer, for It Is a tremendous piece of work. An other equally difficult task Is the revision of the Zulu Bible. One of less arduous work, but of Importance, Is the Portuguese. "The Arabia reference Bible is now being printed at the press In Beirut, Syria, and the completion of the Mandarin Chinese Reference Bible... continues, slowly progress ing to an ultimate prefeotlon. Thp revision work is considered of tremendous impor tance in the society. "In regard to the work nearer at hand. In New York there are several auxiliaries which help In this work and there are In Manhattan between thirty-five and orty spoken languages.' Agents from the society are sent dally to Ellis Island. During the eighty years ended October 1, V.W, the so ciety distributed 2,030,088 copies of the Bible in this way. "Early in its history the society made Quaint Features of Life Sudden Close of a Wake, FTER being placed, shrouded. In a casket which was surrounded by mourners gathered for an all-night wake, at Pensacola, Fla., Mrs. Jessie Miller haped from her coffin Christmas night, a perfectly well woman. Physicians twelve hours before had pro nounced life extinct. The woman's hus band, Captain E. J. Miller, master of the army steamer Poe, had left the city to make arrangements for a grave for hla wife, and for conducting the funeral. Mrs. Miller, In breaking out ofv the cof fin, toppled it over and was slightly In jured. The consternation among the mourner waa so great that it waa with difficulty they were Induced to return to the chamber and render aid. The case la declared to bo one of suspended respira tion. v Why Jap Hables Are Good. Americans wonder at the amiable temper of our Japanese babies, says a native in the Dollenator; the real marvel Is' the measure cf good nature which the Ameri can baby manages to retain after all he is called upon to go through In dressing. How on earth can the most perfect of saints, let alone a baby, be expected to retain his Christian virtues! His legs and tiec-k are twisted Into all aorta of double knots three, four times a day, that they may be squeezed through a tight-fitting shirt. Our baby lolhea are certainly simpler. Incidentally they are wlde-mlnded and wide-sleeved enough to let a baby grow In them without Us putting up a ring fight. Baby dresses are cut, along general lines, the same as the kimono of the grownups. Only for the baby the sleevea and skirts are longer and wider In proportion, so that they will cover the bare feet; bealdes pro tecting the bare hands, the long sleeves aave faces from heartless scratchlngs. After the first bath the nurse take out an undergarment, fits It Into the inner aide of an outer garment and then lays the dresses "Thus fitted upon the aoft-padded Wffl of the Indianapolis library, tn reratalogue cur books. This also meant reclassifying and renumbering, and most of lh booke were card catalogued. The eatalogue and finding lists were Issued In And then our dream of a building of our ewn came true. I used to pana the new building every day going to and Trom my work and ( watched It with every bit as much In terest as If It had been my own. Finally we moved In, and almost everyone will re member our grand opening reception July 4. 1:4. And now I am completing my twenty-fifth year of service. " At various limes Miss O Rrlen has sa sumrd the duties of librarian for several months at a time. When 111 health neces sitated Miss Allen's prolonged absence Miss O'Brien took her place, and since Mlsa Kdlth Tobilt become librarian Miss O'Brien lum acted In her place during trips abroad and on other occasions when her absence was enforced. In September, 183", Mlse O'Brien assumed charge of the reading room, the medloal library and the collec tion of government publications, which po sition she still holds. Miss O'Brien Is a daughter of the late Cloneral and Mrs. George Morgan O'Brien, who were among Omaha's early residents. She has been Identified with library work and library extension In Nebraska for many yeurs, and haa the distinction of having given the first paper before- the first an nual meeting of the Nebraska Library as sociation, which was held at Lincoln in December, 18. Her subject was "The Re lation of the Public Library to the Publlo School." For seven years she served as treasurer of that organisation and Is at present lis second vice president. She was also a member of the legislative committee of the association that worked with the clubwomen for the passage of the bill creating the state library commission. She Is also a member of, the Amerloan Library association and at Intervals during her service In the Omaha library bas taken special training Tor her work. "As the years go by I begin to dream of a little fruit ranch out In Washington or some other mild climate. Just a fear acres, five or ten, would be enough to occupy my declining years," said Mlaa O'Brien, with a smile. "But the margin an assistant librarian's salary affords over living expenses nowadays is nut muura ing of speedy realisation of such a dream but I will not be ready to retire from mjr present position for several years'." arrangements to supply Bibles at half cost to hotels, steamboats and railroad cars, and at the principal seaports, with New York In the lead, a large number are regu larly sent among the naval forces and among seamen generally. To date about 1,(00.000 books have been distributed by the marine committee. Hnmora of the Work. "Even the dignrfled seriousness of Dr. Dnlght is not proof against the attack of mirth that seizes him as he relates the Introduction of what a barker dsaorlbed to the merrymakers at Coney Island last sum mer aa 'the washtub' edition of the Bible. "The Bible at Coney Island Is brought Into competition with fasoinatlng and novel forms of amusement and entertainment and the hoarse voice of its own energetic col porteur is one of many crying special wares, such aa the 'Loop the Loop,' 'the Ride Into the Whale' and the "Voyage to Heaven and Hell,' and even those members of the society who deprecate the apparent loss of dignity Involved In this rivalry are obliged to admit that while It is eminently necessary to maintain the serious character of the Holy Book at the same time it ia equally necessary 'to yield a point in doing so and to take Into account the prevailing moods of the thousands who stroll by the stands rrjoods of recreation and enjoyment. "The colporteur at Coney Island haul a ready tongue and wit. He has a more diffi cult proposition to handle than Ills com petitors, and he handles it deftly. To one he says reprovingly, In answer to a jest, 'This book will keep you from sin. Sin will keep you from this book.' On the cards he distributes and among the printed posters decorating his well stocked stall the passerby may read I Satan trembles when he sees Scriptures sold as cheap as these. "With bis megaphone In hand John Henry Way, a lifetime devotee of this special branch of work, calls out to the moving multitude, 'Don't forget the Bible,' and some are singled out for special comments adapted to their special needs. The small boys whose greedy mouth Is open to re ceive a large chunk of ice cream sandwich Is, for instance, arrested by, the statement, 'You can have a book that will last you for years for the price of a sandwich that Is lost In a second.' Probably the sand wich Is lost and the book is not gained, but the boy haa beed made to think." mat floor and simply and naturally puts the baby Into tha opt n folds. No screams. What excuse can the baby have to yell? Simply a matter of dress nothing mere. But see what a difference it makes in life! To .the American mother the century-old hysterical fit of screaming ao terrifying to her; to the Japanese mother, perhaps, the sweetest melody on earth the mellow cool ing of content. Tragedy of the Telephone. W. L. Ross, treasurer of the Cuyahoga Telephone company, file of the awful case of a woman on a auburbun party line who was In the habit ef talking, or listening to other people talking, over that line all day long, or until hunger would drive har from the phone. One day a man on tht same line picked up the receiver and heard this woman and another one working a conversational re lay. He was annoyed lover having to wait and set about making the women mad at each other ao that they wouldn't talk any mure. He placed the receiver on his phone up against the transmitter, with the result that when either woman was talking, her words came right back to her own ears. The woman that happened to be having the flow of words to the face at that mo ment thought her neighbor was mocking her, and after telling what ahe thought of the bringing up of the people that would stoop to such discourtesy, she hung up. Then the man put In his call and was not molested. Cleveland Plain Dealer. The Lame War. J I in Jeffries was talking to a reporter about the purse of 101,000 that goes to the winner of the Jeffries-Johnson battle. "Oh, no," said the hurculean young man, "it Isn't an enormous one fur America. We look at money In such a large way here. "Coming over on the boat I heard two Chicago men talking In the bar. " 'Which would you rather be,' said ono of the in, "very rich or very poor? " Neither,' said the other, In our large native way. 'Otve me my choice and I'd have about ta.too.000,' "Mew York Time